


What to Expect when your sexy sherrif girlfriend is Expecting

by Neebsandtatties



Series: Wayward Son [4]
Category: Borderlands
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, I'm 10K in and I'm losing it, Implied Sexual Content, Jack panics a lot, Jack tries to fix things with Angel, Lots of ding dong rows and threats of violence, Murder Family, Nisha is all chill for the most part, Protective big sister Angel, Taking over the Jack and Nisha tag one story at a time, Unplanned Pregnancy, in his own weird wacky way, ooc probably
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-07-15
Updated: 2016-07-15
Packaged: 2018-07-24 05:24:35
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 10,550
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7495572
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Neebsandtatties/pseuds/Neebsandtatties
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jack and Nisha navigate the minefield that is an unplanned pregnancy *An AU of an AU essentially.  Set three years before the events of Borderlands 2*</p>
            </blockquote>





	What to Expect when your sexy sherrif girlfriend is Expecting

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Sanzosin](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=Sanzosin).



> *This is sort of AU an to 'Bits and Pieces' but instead Jack is alive and Nisha gets preggers. Chapter one is the lead up to Jake's birth. Chapter two will be his life onboard Helios*

 He remembers it all perfectly.

14:32

That’s the exact time in which Nisha tells him she’s pregnant.

He’s at his desk, pouring over data pads of requisitions, mining surveys, department reports. A cigarette is tucked behind in ear, unsmoked because he’s too distracted with the scrawling charts on his data to remember to light it up. He’s supposed to be cutting down anyway. He hates how it leaves his mouth tasting like ash – almost like the Vault on Elpis. He doesn’t want to think about that right now, so Nisha is a welcomed (and not to mention, smoking hot) distraction.

She comes to his office, unannounced as always after scaring the shit out of Denise but still he grumps about it in the usual manner which he knows she’s come to expect. She’d have asked him where his balls were if he’d greeted her with a saccharine smile.

“Geez, would it kill ya to knock?” he gripes in a way of acknowledging her presence. He expects a leisurely, casual threat of violence in response.

This time is different and he notices it when Nisha ignores his testy response. “We gotta talk.”

His fingers pause on the holographic screen. Jack knows by the tone of her voice that there’s something not quite right. After everything that happened on Elpis and the Vault, he can read her clearly. It’s probably the reason that they are even alive in the first place. He hears the unfamiliar catch in her voice and when he glances up, he sees how her hands tremble at her side. A hard rock sinks deep into his gut and he suddenly tastes steel in his mouth.

 _She’s breaking up with me_. The thought comes to his head immediately, along with a sudden trigger of self-depreciation. _Fuck I bet she thinks I’m clingy and needy too._ Something bitter and tight unfurrows in his chest. _Damnit. Damnit._

Instead he tries to snub her off, because buying his head in the sand like a very handsome ostridge might meant he wouldn’t have to deal with it right away. He isn’t ready to let go just yet. “Can’t it wait? I’m frigging swamped here if you haven’t noticed,” he says, making a point of gesturing to the data pads on his desk. “So, if you could just come back in about twelve years time, that would be _great_.”

But she’s undeterred and determined to get his attention. Ironic really, considering he once faced down the Lost Legion alone just to get hers. “Jack, I’m pregnant,” Nisha says simply.

He laughs at the back of his throat, instantly relieved that she hasn’t come by to say she’s dumping him. She’s just looking for attention. And here he was actually worried. “Yeah. Right. And I’m a fucking siren.”

“Jack.”

He looks up, and she’s still staring at him with an open face and her jaw set in determination. It occurs to him that her steel expression hasn’t changed at all.

She’s serious.

Suddenly, his reports seem small and unimportant.

“Oh geez you’re not laughing.” He’s suddenly very glad he’s sitting down. He doesn’t trust his legs. “Shit, are you actually?-“

Nisha’s gaze is unwavering as she reaches into her jacket pocket and tosses a little white stick onto his desk. The strip of positive purple is unmistakable _._ “Pregnant, Jack,” she says again, slowly this time like he’s an idiot. He can feel his mouth open so he probably looks like one. “So yeah, figured you should know before you start makin’ jokes about me getting fat and wonder why I ain’t laughin’” she adds.

_Oh god she’s pregnant. Oh god she peed on that. Oh God it’s on my desk. Oh god she’s pregnant._

“Oh god.”

“He ain’t got anything to do with this.”

The air seems to disappear from the room entirely as the truth of the situation sets in. Jack swallows, his tongue dry in his mouth. “When?” He’s already lost the ability to speak properly.

She shifts her weight – a casual little idle that he knows masks anxiety. “Probably at that big, fancy Hyperion dinner. We were both pretty drunk remember?” She laughs humourlessly. “Actually you probably don’t. I don’t either. But the timin’ matches up.”

Damn it. He does remember that dinner – pieces of it anyway. He definitely remembers how good She had looked in a dark purple satin dress. “How? How did that even happen?”

Nisha’s brows rise. “You stuck your dick in me Jack. Kinda obvious what happened.”

He sinks a hand into his hair. “No, ugh, Geez. I mean I thought you were protected or some jazz.”

“Me too,” she replies as she rubs her eyes. It occurs to him that she’s very pale and tired under the Pandora darkened tan. “I was usin’ those pills you gave me, and they always worked before. Dunno why they don’t work now.”

Someone fucked up in his company somewhere. If Nisha’s really knocked up, he’ll knock their teeth out. “I’ll need to look into that.” He runs his hand through his hair again. He doesn’t know what else to do with his hands and he’s about four seconds away from a total freak out. “So what do we do now?”

“Well I was thinkin’ about castrating you,” Nisha replies with a toothy smile.

It’s the response he expects and he’s ready for. “Yes, well, after that obviously.”

Nisha laughs softly. “Got any beer? Cos you look like you need one.”

* * *

 

In the end, he doesn’t freak out.

Instead the discuss the matter into the morning. He stopped looking at his clock after 3am. “Suppose I gotta ask the question Nish, you wanna keep it?”

Nisha shrugs casually, hair brushing her shoulders softly. “I dunno. Don’t know if I’m cut out to be a mom,” she replies as her hand slides across her lower stomach. If she’s as scared shitless as he is, she’s doing a good job at hiding it. “I’m a chip off the old block.”

Jack nods, but he’s still wrestling with the fact that there’s a baby growing inside her. The belly he likes to kiss and – more often than not – bite is still as flat as a pancake.

“Yeah, I get that,” he answers, thumbing the rim of a beer bottle he’s barely touched. He doesn’t want to be drunk for this conversation. “But no one is really cut out to be a parent at the start,” he adds. He has to admit, he likes the idea of having another kid. He likes the idea a lot; a little brother or sister to make Angel smile again, and an Heir for Hyperion. Two birds with one stone. “We kinda learn as we go.”

Nisha gives him that probing, golden stare; the one that feels like a bullseye centring into his head. “Are you askin’ me to have your kid Jack,” Nisha asks, pinning his thoughts down with that sniper accuracy he adores. “Cos it sounds like you are.”

He is, and still he hesitates. “I-What? No. I mean, like it’s your choice or whatever but -“ Jack cuts himself off before he says something incriminating.  Damn it, already he’s imagining his unborn kid with her rich glossy hair and amber freckled eyes. He knows that’s just asking for trouble but he can’t help himself. It’s too good to pass up. “I’m just saying that if you did, at least you’d know what _not_ to do,” he adds lamely.

His girlfriend presses a palm onto her stomach again and she rubs, as if trying to feel for a baby that’s not even seven weeks along yet. At this point it will look like something that’s crawled from a hole on Pandora, not remotely human at all. “That’s a joke. All I know how to do is fuck things up,” she replies reluctantly. There’s a raw vulnerability on her face he doesn’t like. “I wouldn’t even know where to start.”

His heart snags on something beneath his breastbone. Hope. “Well it’s not like we get a how-to manual with the birth certificate babe.”

Nisha leans back against the plush leather sofa, her arms draping over the back. “So I get to be fat and ugly. you get another kid to run Hyperion someday. That ain’t a fair trade considerin' I'll be the one doin' all the work, ” she says.

Jack clears his throat. “Okay for starters, you’d look smoking hot pregnant alright? And it’s not like I’d do nothing babe. I’ve been through this before remember? Angel was a damn handful, being a siren and all that,” he comments. “Hey, maybe we’ll win the genetic lottery and get another siren. Get her trained up and set her loose on those assholes on Pandora.”

She gives him another look with raised eyebrows. “Geez, you really are serious about this aren’t you cowboy?”

He can’t remember the last time he was more serious. “Well yeah. Need a couple more kids to run Hyperion when I’m elderly, mad and taking up some unusual hobby like water skiing,” Jack replies as he tries to hide the excitement. That wouldn’t be cool, not until he knows what she wants to do.

His girlfriend stretches, pushing her chest forward and curving her spine to stretch out the tight muscles. Jack wishes she wouldn’t do it with a little moan. It’s not fair. “You’re already halfway there,” Nisha comments with a glint of a smile.

Ouch.

He tips his beer bottle at her. “Just cos you’re pregnant doesn’t mean you can talk shit to my face babe,” Jack says before taking a swig. It feels like treacle in his mouth. “But seriously Nish, when it comes down to it, it isn’t my choice. I mean, you’re the one who’ll have to lug it around all day while I’m looking super handsome and all that,” he says.

Nisha’s lips twist into scowl. “Thanks for keepin’ it in perspective for me,” she comments before pausing. He can see the wrinkle between her eyebrows and he wants to reach out and smooth it over with his thumb. “Is this really what you want?” she asks finally.

“This isn’t about what I want Nish,” he admits, and the truth is hard and bitter on his tongue. “I’m not the one who has to lug it around.”

“Wow, there’s a first,” she says, her tone so fond that he can’t even get offended about it. “But I’m serious Jack. Do you want this kid? Like really want this kid?”

Jack swallows again. Lies have always come easy to him. It’s an automatic defence mechanism; an old habit from an uncertain, scary time when he was young and afraid.

But he can’t bring himself to lie about this. Not about this. He’d rather cut his own hand off. “God yes,” he says, his voice shaking like his fingers. “There’s no one I want more to have my kids than you Nish.”

That stumps her. “Huh,” she says before she goes uncharacteristically quiet. He can hear the hum of the Helios  - a white noise he’s only just suddenly become aware of. Damn has it always been loud? It thumps in time with his rapidly racing heart. He’s suddenly so sure that he’s completely screwed up, that his sudden dependence on her will scare her off. Jesus why did he have to say that? He sounds like a pathetic, love-sick loser.

But hasn’t he always? As he watches her mull over his statement, he suddenly finds himself marvelling that he’d even gotten so far with her. He remembers how hard he’d crushed on her so hard when they’d first met.  She hadn’t been the least bit interested in him and he’d be certain she’d be fucking Wilhelm before the end of the week.

Yet here she is, on _his_ space station with pregnant with _his_ baby.

Funny old world wasn’t it?

And then, miraculously, Nisha suddenly smiles. There’s something in her eyes that immediately unknots the curl in his gut.  “You’re takin’ the night shifts then.”

“You mean?-“ He can’t believe what he’s hearing. He knows that Nisha always does what Nisha wants, and a baby certainly doesn’t factor into it.

“Yeah.”

It’s almost too good to be true. “You sure?”

Nisha fixes her gaze on him. He wants to think that she’s smiling slightly. “Well it’s going to be such a pain in the ass, lugging it around for nine months. Damn I don’t even know if I’m mommy material,” Nisha admits. He can sense a ‘but’ in there.

She sighs. “But…” Yes, there it was. “You know I don’t like sharin’...So if anyone is gonna have your kids, it’s gonna be me,” Nisha admits.

There’s a brief silence and he’s suddenly off the sofa and at her feet before he realises he’s moved. The beer bottle is forgotten, like his pride but he doesn’t care. He presses his face into her lap, just holding her in gratitude. Her fingers are in his hair, brushing with a tenderness she rarely displays because Nisha doesn’t do soft. His heart swells up into the back of his throat. He can’t put it into words how he feels but Jesus, he’s going to be a father again.

 

* * *

 

_Legs tight around his waist, fingers sink deep into her hair as he kisses her lips until they are plump and swollen. Words tumble from his mouth but he’s not even aware of what he’s saying. Maybe it’s a plead. Maybe it’s gratitude. Maybe it’s both. “Thank you, thank you,” he says over and over like a benediction._

* * *

 

The news spreads fast, and he doesn’t bother to stop it. Helios is as affective a rumour mill as it is a weapons manufacturer. It doesn’t take long for it to filter through: Handsome Jack’s girlfriend is pregnant. He’s never more proud. He wants them to know that their esteemed CEO isn’t shooting blanks; that he’s a goddamn stallion who can knock up a woman half his age. Some brave soul starts a baby pool, Rhys somebody-or-other, and soon enough half his company are putting bets in.

But he makes sure that Angel knows first even though he knows that will probably mortally offend Wilhelm. It’s only right that she knows before he makes the announcement to Hyperion. She’s going to be a big sister. He wants to make her smile again. Angel has such a lovely smile; the comforting sort that used to take the sting out of Tassiter’s criticism back in the day.

Angel is silent when he tells her. It’s hard to read her over the haze of the screen but he hopes she isn’t angry. She’s going to have a little brother or sister to push around soon. That’s how siblings were supposed to work right?

And she does smile and for once, it reaches her eyes. That in itself is worth having to watch Nisha crunch her way through raw lemons or having to keep a bucket by the side of the bed whenever she’s on Helios. Morning sickness is a bitch. “ _Wow…that’s great,”_ she says, and she sounds as if she means it. _“When’s the baby due?”_

“Sometime around November I reckon,” Jack replies. “Won’t sure for sure until Nish gets a scan.”

Angel cracks another smile but her eyes are distracted. She’s probably already scouring her databases for information babies. _“Tell Nisha to start taking extra vitamins.”_

“You tell her.”

His daughter gives him a questioning look. “No seriously, you tell her. She doesn’t like me telling her how to do anything,” he explains quickly. Can’t have his daughter thinking he’s afraid of Nisha.

_“I’ll try.”_

The conversation seems almost normal, even though it’s far from normal. His gut clenches and he suddenly wishes that his next kid isn’t a siren. He doesn’t think he has it in him to lock away another kid. “You know, uh, I’ll bring them down to see you when they’re born. Maybe get you to do some babysitting duties,” he says, not sure entirely if he means it but the sentiment is there.

But Angel seems to appreciate the offer. _“I’d like that.”_

And the divide shrinks.

* * *

 

It’s not a smooth pregnancy. Not at all.  Baby-wise, it’s fine. But they aren’t fine. Not in the slightest.

They fight. By god how they fight. Nisha agrees to have their kid but she doesn’t agree to any of his other terms, including leaving Lynchwood to her deputy for nine months. Jack wants her on Hyperion at all times – safe and within armsreach. And he’s got just as much of a right to have an opinion on it, whether she likes it or not. That’s not unreasonable, right? It’s his kid growing in her now.

It gets very nasty, very quickly. He wants to blame it on her hormones but he knows that wouldn’t be entirely true. Nisha’s as untamed as Pandora, even before he’d knocked her up. And unlike Pandora, he can’t civilise her with an ancient weapon. If only it were so easy.

“I’m pregnant Jack! Not dead!” Nisha fires at him. “I have a job to do. The one you gave me, remember?” she adds as she taps the gold badge pinned to her chest.

He wishes he hadn’t given it to her now. “You’re not going to Pandora right now. Get that lazy lay-about deputy of yours to earn his keep for a change,” he comments, trying to keep his temper in check.  She's not making it easy. 

Nisha glares. She looks like she might stab him with his ornamental letter opener (who even gets letters anymore?) “Oh, is that a fact?”

“Yeah, it is. So get used to it.”

She slams her hands onto his desk in anger. He’s proud of himself for not recoiling from her. He’s never seen her so mad. “You can’t keep me locked up here! I’m not one of your fuckin’ employees.” She’s never done well being caged in one area for two long. He knows that. But he just doesn’t care. He’s got a bun in the oven now.

“ _Technically_ you are,” Jack says as he nods knowingly to the sheriff’s badge on her chest. “You’re employed by Hyperion. And who owns Hyperion?” He pauses to tap his index finger against his chin, knowing full well how much it will piss her off. “Oh yeah, that’s right, me. Consider this paid Maternity leave,” he adds with a satisfying smugness. The fact that Hyperion doesn’t have maternity leave is irrelevant.

Nisha bears her teeth like the feral dog she once bashed to death. “Fuck you Jack,” she snarls. The ways she says it kicks him right into defensive before he has a chance to think. He goes in below the belt, because screw her and her hormonal bullshit.

“Maybe if you hadn’t, then we wouldn’t be in this mess!”

Her expression is incredulous, like she can’t believe what she’s hearing. He can’t believe he’s even saying it. “Honey, it takes two to tango. You’re just as much to blame for this _mess_ ” she says, settling her hand on her stomach.

He feels a twinge of guilt because that’s unfair on his kid. “Look I just wanna make sure our kid is safe alright? I’m not doing this to be an asshole.”

"Coulda fooled me."

"Yeah well, such it up babe."

Nisha’s jaw tightens and she refuses to cede her ground. “You can’t keep me here Jack. I’ll kill you if you do.”

At that moment, he almost wouldn’t put it past her. So it makes the next comment out of his mouth even more stupid.  “Geez, would you just pull your head out of that huge frigging ass and listen to me for once?”

That does it. Nisha rips off the badge from her chest and throws it at him. The star bounces off his chest and rattles onto the floor. “Stick that up your ass instead,” Nisha snaps then turns on her booted heel and storms out of his office.

Jack stares, not quite sure what’s just happened. Has she quit on him? She hasn’t got the right to quit on him, not after everything they’ve been through. She can't just storm off with his kid in her.

 He taps his communicator. “Denise?”

_“Yes sir?”_

“My girlfriend has stormed off in a huff, probably heading for the shuttle bay. Can you get security to go and bring her back for me?”

_“Of course sir,”_

“Thanks, you’re a doll,” he replies then cuts off the communication. She’s probably going to just kill them if they try and stop her but at least she can’t accuse him of not caring.

* * *

 

A month passes and she’s still giving him the silent treatment. It pisses him off. They have had ding dong rows before where she would storm off to Pandora and he’d send a couple of crap bounty hunters after her. They never succeed in catching her, of course they wouldn’t, but it would always be enough to remind her that he was thinking of her. Afterwards, they’d kiss and make up. Rise and Repeat.

Now he does nothing. He can’t risk it anymore. Now he has to sit about and wait for her to show up like some sad teenager with a crush. But he’s determined not to be beat. He loves his kid, but he loves getting the one over on Nisha.

* * *

 

In the end, neither of them break. But somehow it feels like she's won. 

She arrives on Hyperion on the morning she’s due for a scan. He meets her in the shuttle bay, making sure he looks the part of a slighted lover. She can’t know just how much he’s missed her. He’s missed her more than is safe. It’s taken everything he has and more not to jet down to Pandora and drag her back to Helios. He’s had Angel keep an eye on her, but Nisha is good at disappearing when she wants to. And sabotaging Hyperion systems with a well placed bullet or two.

She steps off the shuttle with a cheerful bounce in her step he’s sadly familiar with. “You didn’t send me anythin’ nice this time honey,” Nisha comments with a victorious shark smile. “I’m hurt.”

He stamps down the urge to slap it right off her face. That would certainly hurt. “Sorry pumpkin,” he replies. “Expense cuts and all that.”

She makes a face at him. “Somehow I doubt that,” Nisha says before brushing past him to head for medical. As she passes, he catches the scent of dust and gunpowder mixed with something floral that’s just undeniably Nisha. In a world of constant sanitation and sterilisation, he’s suddenly aware of just how much he’s missed that earthy smell and missed her.

_Goddamn it._

* * *

 

Doctor Anderson oversees the ultrasound; a skinny, dark haired bespectacled kid barely out of med school. He’s taken a bit of a shine to because she reminds him of his daughter (all sad and pale looking) so she treats his Vault Scar on occasion. He trusts her not to fuck up. Nisha comments that she isn’t Nurse Nina, but allows the doctor to spread the conductive gel over her belly. Jack peers at his girlfriend’s exposed stomach. At three months, his kid is little more than a paunch; barely there.  

That doesn’t stop Nisha from taking a swipe at him with those perfectly sharpened claws. “Startin’ to get as big as you now huh?” she quips from the examination table. His doctor’s shoulders go tense at the comment. He knows what she’s thinking. He’s thrown people out of the airlock for far less. But Nisha is the only person who he’ll let get away with it.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” he asks even though he knows exactly what it means. Cheeky bitch.

Nisha leans back and she smirks likes she’s untouchable. The worst part is that she is. “It means you’d better cut down on the pretzels loverboy,” she drawls.

 _Ouch._ _Right below the belt_. “Hey, I’m eating for two right now ya know,” he replies. Nisha gives him a grin and he forgets for a moment that he’s supposed to be mad at her.

A rather nervous Doctor Anderson suddenly clears her throat. “Let’s have a little look in there shall we? Make sure everything is alright,” she says, looking as if she’d rather be invisible. Or anywhere else. Or dead.

“Yeah, make sure we’re having a kid and not a demon baby,” he remarks as the physician searches out their kid in Nisha’s belly. The wand flicks this way and that and Jack glances to the hologram – that at this point is just a blue three dimensional display of Nisha’s innards. It’s hard to make out sense of anything. If there’s a baby in there, he can’t see it.

He’s suddenly catapulted back to his first marriage. He remembers just as nervous and just as much in love as the doctor twisted the wand around on his wife’s abdomen. God if only they had known. Maybe they could have prepared, could have been ready to have a siren daughter. His hands are shaking at his sides and when he blinks, all he can see is red. He tries to breathe, but his throat feels tight and sore like he’s about to cry. But that’s ridiculous because he doesn’t cry. Ever.

Whatever is on his face, Nisha notices it immediately over the shoulder of the doctor. She reaches her hand out to him, and he’ll be damned if that isn’t a lifeline. “Jack, gimmie your hand. I wanna practice breaking it before labour,” she says, conveying her concern the only way she knows how -through threats of violence.

He finds it hard to be angry at her anymore. “Jeez, the things I do for you,” Jack says but slips his hand into hers. Her fingers thread through his; holding, securing, anchoring. He squeezes tightly in gratitude because anything he could say didn’t seem sufficient.

 “Ah…There you are,” announces Anderson before adjusting her glasses with her free hand. “The baby I mean, not the, uh, demon spawn.”

Jack’s heart spins in his chest as the hologram hones in on Nisha’s womb and renders a 3Demensional representation of their child. His kid is no bigger than a few inches and looks barely human at all. “Damn…really does look like a demon,” Nisha comments before glancing to him with a raised brow. “What the hell did you put in me Jack?” she asks as the Doctor takes spinal, leg and crown measurements.

“Just my dick babe,” he answers with a smile and it’s a delight to see Anderson’s ears turn red.

She clears her throat awkwardly. “Looks…looks like everything is developing as it should,” says the good doctor, trying her best to pretend the conversation isn’t happening around her. Cute really, in a sad, tragic way. “You’re about 12 weeks along Miss Kadam.”

Nisha’s hand squeezes his again and the old arguments are forgotten. “Shit, this is real,” she comments. Jack’s throat is dry. That’s his kid right there, and again just as it so many years ago, it doesn’t feel the least bit real.

“Let’s see if we wake them up a little.” Anderson gives Nisha’s belly another little nudge with the wand. “Hey baby, look who’s here. Say hello.”

His kid responds immediately, like they’ve been waiting this entire time for Jack and Nisha to show up. It’s one of the best things he’s ever seen in his entire life. The hologram flickers a moment as his kid rolls to the side and stretches out a tiny arm, no bigger than half an inch. They seem to be almost waving at him.

Jack raises his free hand and waves back awkwardly. He should feel like a complete tool, waving at a baby who can’t see him, but he doesn’t. “Hey there kiddo,” he says with a thick throat. “Alright in there? How’s your pad looking? No holes in the ceiling? No faulty wiring? Can’t be too afraid with these cheap digs ya know.”

Nisha twists his hand sharply and he feels his wrist tweak. “Geez mommy, lay off.”

“Stop talking shit daddy and I will,” Nisha retorts, but her eyes are elsewhere. She’s looking at the hologram of their kid. “Better get my shit together then.”

“Yeah, me too.”

 

* * *

 

After the scan, they come to an agreement. It sobers them both up to see their kid squirming around inside of her. She’ll stay on Pandora four days out of seven, then return to Helios for three days. He’d rather have her for much longer but he’ll take three days over her going AWOL on Pandora again.

And he just _really_ wants to kiss and make up.

* * *

 

They make up in his office. And against the wall. And his bedroom. Then against the wall again.

* * *

 

“Girl or boy?”

They’re in his bed when he asks the question, legs tangle and sheets draped leisurely over hips. He’s taken the afternoon off because damn it, he’s the CEO and if he wants to have the afternoon off, he’ll have it. Being his own boss is freaking great.

Nisha stirs against him and he can feel the old Hyperion jumper catching against his chest hair. It will be sad when she is too big to fit into it. Seeing the hem skirting about her thighs always got his motor going. “Hmmm?” she mumbles.

“Since you’re being a bitch about finding out what we’re having, what do you _think_ we’re having? Boy or a girl?” he asks as he twirls a lock of her hair through his fingers. He hopes the baby will have her shiny, glossy hair.

 “You heard the doc, too early to tell yet,” she replies.

“Well, if we had to guess, what will we have?”

Nisha braces herself onto her elbow to look at him. Above them, the stars swirl in the glass dome cut into his ceiling, dappling on her skin like freckles of diamonds. When was the last time she’d looked so beautiful? God he was getting sentimental these days. “You first.”

“I think it’s a girl.”

“What makes you think that?”

“I dunno, just a feeling,” he replies.

“Better not be a girl, or Wilhelm will be pissed.”

“What? He thinks it’s a boy?”

“Yup, because I’m craving sour and salty stuff,” Nisha says because, apparently, that alone is enough.

“Since when has he been an expert on babies?”

“Since he wants to win the baby pool.”

“What an asshole. I pay him more than enough.”

Nisha chuckles. “Yeah he is.” His girlfriend burrows into the crook of his shoulder, as if trying to push through and settle into his skin. Jack curls his arm around her, pulling her closer so that he can feel the gentle rise of her shoulders as she breathes. His hand relaxes against her stomach and suddenly, the old, familiar fears resurface again and he can’t wrestle it back down.

“Nish…What if we have a Siren?”

“We won’t,” she says nonchalantly, as if it weren’t the least bit possible; as if he wasn’t the father of a siren already. “I don’t know much about Sirens and shit, but I know their genetics don’t work like normal. Chances are one in a million?”

He feels himself go tense, his stomach heavy with lead. “What if we do though? I’ve had one already and look how freaking well that went.” It’s illogical and highly unlikely, yet he assumes the worst – that they’re having another somehow Siren and that something terrible will happen to Nisha just as it did to his first wife.

Nisha brings her hand up to stroke along his stomach muscles, trying to work the anxious knots free. “It ain’t likely Jack. Look, stop worryin’. you’ll give yourself wrinkles.” He knows she means it as a joke but he still can’t help but feel an overwhelming tightness in his chest.

“Nish I’m being serious.”

“So am I.” Her eyebrows pinch. “Why are you suddenly so worried about this? Thought you kinda liked the idea?”

“I just…Goddamn it.” He momentarily buries his face into her hair, fighting back the fear. He won’t let anyone see this, not even her. Everything feels wrong, and mixed up. “I don’t want anything to happen to you like it did to Angel’s mom,” Jack admits and it’s the hardest confession he’s ever made. “I couldn’t handle it Nish.”

Nisha suddenly props herself up abruptly and near enough knocks his teeth out when she collides with his chin. “Jesus, what’s your head made of? Rock?” he says with a scowl.

She ignores him. “Shut up a second and listen to me.” Her hands suddenly frame his face, thumbs resting on his cheeks. Her eyes are as intense as he’s ever seen them and it kills the protest on his tongue. “Whatever you’re worried about Jack, it ain’t going to happen. Alright?” she says with such certainty that he almost believes her. “I’m right here Jack and I aint not going anywhere. You’re stuck with me, handsome.”

He leans into her touch and the pads of her thumbs on his Vault scar is complete bliss. “But what if it does? You didn’t see what happened babe…I just-Fuck.” he says, loathing how his voice seems to shake. It’s ridiculous and suddenly he feels like a complete idiot. She’s the one with a kid in her, _yet_ she’s the one having to reassure him. _Fucking hell. I really am clingy._ He tries to speak, say something else, but he feels like there’s a hand around his throat.

If she thinks him clingy, she doesn’t show it at all. Nisha just continues to stroke along the faded blue lines on his face. “Jack…I’m not Laura. I’m not gonna die any time soon.”

“But-“

“Jack, shhh. Stop it.” she orders in that authoritative tone that always makes him shut up. “No point in losin’ sleep over something we can’t control. If we have a siren then we have a siren. That's that. But I’m not about to die Jack.” She leans forward to seal her promise with a kiss before retracting her hands. “Besides, I’m the pregnant one here. I’m the one who’s supposed to be freakin’ out. Gotta keep your head screwed on right daddy or we're fucked. ”

Something about her humour, her touch…It settles the anxiety pulling his chest apart. The fingers around his throat loosen and suddenly, he can breathe again. “Are you just mad I’m stealing your thunder?”

“Yeah, so cut that shit out,” she says, pinching his hip before settling back down against him – sighing contentedly. His fingers seek comfort in her hair again as she presses her ear against his chest, her arm curling around him possessively. “It’ll be fine Jack. You’ll see.”

 

* * *

 

Nisha’s bump grows steadily. By her fifth month, she’s trading out her fitted white shirt and leathers for a loose dress that reminds him of a bohemian space pirate. Her beloved sheriffs jacket and holsters are altered to accommodate her growing girth. Even pregnant, Nisha looks dangerous, capable and still ruthlessly running Lynchwood with an iron fist. It’s easy to imagine her sitting in the sheriff’s office; one hand resting on her stomach and the other resting on the trigger of her favourite pistol, wearing that damned smirk as she sends bandits off to swing at her gallows.

And he imagines it often. Far too often truth be told. But he can’t help it. He’s fixated by her – almost frustratingly so. He’s supposed to be hunting down traitors and vaults like a heroic and very handsome treasure hunter. No one really appreciates how much he does.

Instead, he’s wasting his days mooning around Nisha when she’s up from Lynchwood. He can’t work when he knows she’s visiting. The sight of her running her hand over her stomach is enthralling. Mostly, she’s giving their kid crap but there’s a softness in her voice that might have been missed if he didn’t know her so well.

“You little shithead,” she says to her swollen stomach, sitting on the edge of his desk. “Can’t drink, can’t smoke. Now I can’t even chase down bandits cos you’re makin’ me fat and slow. You’re no fun at all.”

Jack just tithers without looking up. He’s behind with his paperwork as it is but at least he’s trying. “The baby can hear you by the way.”

“No it can’t.”

“Yes it can, if you’d bothered your ass to read those books Angel forwarded to you.”

“You know I ain’t big on readin’. And this is your fault anyway so you should be doing the readin’.”

“Mine huh?” he asks, sparing her a glance. “How you figure that?”

“You knocked me up,” she replies as she runs her hand over the curve of her belly. His eyes follow and he feels the itch in his hand to touch her.  

“But you asked me to. You begged me in fact.”

Nisha just laughs. “Oh honey, I don’t do beggin’. That’s your job.”

He clicks his tongue against his front teeth. That can’t possibly be true. “No I definitely remember it. You were like ‘Oooooh Handsome Jack, fuck me real good. I wanna have your babies’. I just performed my civic duty babe.”

“Thought you didn’t remember huh?”

“’course I’d remember that. Who wouldn’t?”

Nisha opens her mouth to respond, but she suddenly stops; her expression startled. “Woah,” she breathes. He hasn’t heard her voice sound like that in a while.

“What?”

“Gimmie your hand,” she says, ordering him like a dog.

“Why? Where are you going to put it?”

“Shut up and give me your hand.”

And like a good boy, he obeys. What else can he do? “God, want want want with you isn’t it?” Jack says because he’ll be damned if he’s going to make it easy on her.

Nisha seizes his hand and he’s pretty sure she cracks a finger on purpose. “Just shut up and feel.” She places his palm over her belly and he can’t help but spread his fingers over her warm belly.

“So what am I waiting for?” he asks, knowing full well what he’s supposed to be waiting for. But all he can feel is his own pulse point hammering.

“Just a second Jack.”

“Hurry up sweetheart, daddy is a very busy and handsome guy.”

He’s no sooner said it there’s a sudden flutter against his palm, like the nudge of butterfly wings. His hand presses against Nisha’s bump firmly, searching out the sensation again. He feels his kid push back a little harder this time; as if giving him a high five.

It’s an instant connection; a synapse in his brain somewhere that hasn’t activated in close to twelve years. “God,” is all he can say over the lump in his throat.

His girlfriend smirks, but there’s something gentle in her honey eyes. To think it was a side of Nisha he might have missed if his pull out game hadn’t been so weak. “Yeah, it’s feels weird as hell.”

“C’mon, Give daddy another fist bump.” His kid shifts in Nisha again, reaching out to him. “That’s my girl,” he says.

“Boy,” Nisha replies and her voice sounds almost as choked as his. He can’t blame her. Their kid is real and alive and trying to kick its way out of her. There’s no backing out now.

 

* * *

 

The sound of glass shattering wakes him up, and the sight of an empty bed gets him up. He’s not sure what’s worse; the thought of a decompression or the thought of Nisha doing a runner on him.

He ventures out to the open plan kitchen, looking for his missing girlfriend as he hitches the cord of his dressing gown around his waist. His coordination is shit first thing in the morning so it takes a few tries. “Hey Nish? You up babe?” Jack says, blinking under the harsh light.

Nisha on her knees near the fridge, picking up pieces of a glass. She doesn’t even look up when he approaches and keeps her head down. “Jack, I can’t do this,” she admits to the rapidly expanding puddle of milk on the floor.

He’s still half asleep and only half aware of what he’s saying. “Nisha babe that’s just your-“

His pregnant girlfriend cuts him off by a filthy glare and a snarl of: “If you say ‘baby hormones talking’ I’ll stick a knife up your ass and twist it.”

“I was gonna say ‘panties talking’. Hardly different,” Jack replies without missing a beat. She has a collection of glass shards close at hand and her aim is still impeccable.

With her free hand, his girlfriend shoves a hand through her hair and even from twenty paces away, he can see her arm trembling. “Shit, I was stupid to think I could do this. Shit. Shit.”

He’s never heard her sound so frightened, so unsure. It wakes him up immediately. “Woah Nish, calm down. Where’s this coming from huh?” Jack asks, taking care to avoid the scattered shards of glass as he approaches her.

“Just everywhere,” Nisha says. He can feel her frustration bleeding into the air. “I’m gonna screw this up Jack.”

She’s afraid, and it makes him afraid too because Nisha isn’t supposed to be afraid of anything.

“You wont Nish,” Jack says as he crouches down to help her with the shards of glass. But she’s helped him through his crisis. Now he’ll help her through hers. He’s never been great at comforting people but he’s damn well going to try for her. “You’re gonna make such an awesome mom, teaching our kid how to hog-tie bad guys and lasso skags.”

She sighs and sits back on her haunches. “I keep thinkin’ of this tiny kid in me, thinking of my mom and what she was like.” Her hand finds her lower belly and she suddenly lets out a strangled, hysterical little laugh that raises the hair on his arms. “Shit, I’m gonna end up fucking this up somehow. What if I end up like her? Some fucking drunk throwing crap at her kids.”

"Babe, you won't. I can promise you that."

Nisha’s throat jerks. “You’re biased Jack. You'll say whatever I want if it means you'll get your dick sucked.”

“Well yeah, a little,” he admits, because he is. “But I know you’re not going to do anything like that. You remember what that crap is like. You won’t put your kid through it.”

She sniffs. “God listen to you sounding insightful." Honey eyes glitter under the florescent bright lights. She looks as if she might cry, but that’s ludicrous because Nisha doesn’t do cry. He’s sure she doesn’t even have tear ducts.

“Look, if it will make you feel better, I’ll put you out the airlock myself if you start using our kid for target practice. Deal?”

“Deal.”

“Come back to bed babe,” he says, holding a hand out to her. “I’ll rub your back if you want. Do all that pampering bull for ya”

“What about the mess?” she asks because he knows how he gets about mess.

“Leave it, don’t matter,” he replies. "Spilled milk isn’t worth fretting over.”

Nisha puts the last of the glass shards on the counter. “I like you like this Jack, all nurturing and considerate. It’s a good look for you,” she adds.

He snorted at her. “Well don’t get used to it all. You’ll be out earning your keep again the minute junior is born,” he says and he doesn’t mean a word of it.

* * *

 

He forgot how much effort kids were. There’s cribs to be assembled, toys to be bought, rooms to be painted. Thankfully, he’s the hot shot of Hyperion and has people to do that for him. Why do today what he can put off altogether?

But he oversees the building of his kid’s ball pit himself. Can’t let anyone mess that up. It’s shaped like an “H” and will be filled with Black and yellow balls.

Nisha watches him fuss and direct the engineers. They’ve been coming in and out his pad all morning. “A ball pit Jack? Really?” she asks with an arched tone.

He glances over his shoulder at her. “Every kid should have a ball pit to hide in. Our kid just will.”

“Our kid is gonna be a spoiled brat ya know,” she comments, one hand resting on her bump.

“Nah you’ll make sure they’re not,” he replies. "And if they are, well there's worse things to be. Like a bandit. 

“For your sake I hope not. Or I’ll kill you and hide your body in the ball pit,” Nisha replies with a toothy grin.

He doesn’t doubt it for a second.

* * *

 

Fingers dig into his shoulders as Nisha secures him down beneath her with as much of her will as her weight. He knows that look, and it near enough sets his skin on fire. He’s so ready for her he’s aching against the zipper of his jeans. It’s been too long.

“Y-You, uh, you sure?” Jack asks even as her thighs seem to tighten against him. She’s eight months pregnant and been unreceptive to his advances for weeks now. It’s straight up the hardest dry spell of his life because he isn’t some bandit asshole rapist. He respects her too much.

That, and she’d break his fingers if he so much as tries to cop a feel without her consent.

Nisha gives a mischievous little smirk above him that gets him far hotter under the collar than it should. Or maybe it’s the visible press of her bump and breasts against her fringed dress. He drags his eyes over her and makes a note to give his kid a fucking great allowance for making Nisha’s breasts look so good. Couple of million seems fair. “What? You been enjoyin’ this dry spell honey?” she asks as she wriggles on his lap.

Jack hisses. It’s hard to think with his back pressed against a mattress and Nisha straddling him like the cowgirl she still was. Even breathing takes conscious effort. She’s never been sexier, looked sexier. “Like I’d enjoy a heart attack,” Jack replies, trying to ignore the undulating, rocking sensation of her hips.

“Then why you flappin’ your gums?” Nisha says as she tugs the buttons apart on his shirt. A moan catches at the back of his throat as the pads of her fingertips brush against his collarbone. God he’s missed that touch and he desperately wants to feel those fingers press and wrap around his throat.

Instead he huffs beneath her, like it’s all just one big inconvenience that his sexy sheriff girlfriend is straddling his lap unbuttoning his shirt. “Because you’ve been all like ‘Ewww get lost Jack I don’t want your dick near the baby’” he answers in a mockingly high pitched voice. “I was cock blocked by my own damn kid.”

“I don’t sound like that,” she retorts as she starts to prise apart his waistcoat. But she’s right. Her voice is as hot and dark as expensive bourbon.

“You so do.” He can’t believe he’s sabotaging his chance to get his jollies off for first time in weeks for the sake of quipping with her. But he’s missed the special sort of snark they could only have while they were tangled in the bedsheets. “I can make a recording if you don’t believe me.” He pauses to give her a feral, wolfish grin. “Oh and by the way, I checked it up. My dick would be nowhere near junior so up yours.”

 This time, it’s her turn to huff in frustration. “Look, are you gonna just keep yappin’ all night Jack or are you going to fuck me?”

“Cool it babe. I just like yanking your chain,” Jack admits as he slides his hands up her thighs, hiking her dress up higher.

And evidently, she’s had enough of it.

Nisha leans down, her hair just long enough now to brush against his cheek. Her hand skims down his ribcage, pushing up the hem of his jumper to get at his jeans zipper. “Jack,” she breathes over the sound of his zipper inching down. There’s a quiver in her voice that’s as close to a plea as he’s ever going to get. She’d never ask, but like he’d ever be able to refuse her anything now – not with a belly full of his baby.

He suppresses down his first instinct of sarcasm because Jesus Christ, he needs to be in her immediately. “How do you want this? What’s, uh, best for your little passenger in there,” he asks, patting her belly and trying not to feel weird about banging Nisha with his kid in her. His late wife hadn’t let him anywhere near her when Angel was on the way.

“Wow, so noble,” Nisha says with a soft chuckle.

“I know,” he says with a long suffering sigh that’s more breathless than it should have been. “Where do you want me then?”

She grins at him and it’s a shot of heat straight into his dick. “The usual Jack: you under me and beggin’ with that pretty mouth of yours.”

Jack opens his ‘pretty’ mouth to fire back that he never begs and that he’s deeply offended by the insinuation but plush lips are on him. Her mouth is demanding and possessive like she’s trying to get him to shut up because nothing else has worked so far. He tastes something tart on her tongue – probably the lemons she’s been chewing through most of her pregnancy. His eyes flutter shut and suddenly he doesn’t want to fight her anymore.  He pushes the hem of her dress to her hips, desperately to feel the press of her hot, flushed skin.

She takes the hint and breaks the kiss to tug off the offending garment. He stares for a moment, openly admiring this new, fascinating, gorgeous Nisha.

“Like what you see huh?” she teases as she drops the dress over the side of the bed.

Oh yes. He definitely does.

He takes his time learning her body all over again, memorising the miracle that is a pregnant Nisha. As long as he’s known her, she’s been slender and toned from swinging guns and rounding up the bad guys. This new Nisha is different somehow; softer and curved but no less dangerous.

And he can’t get enough of her.

He feels the new weight of her breasts in his hands, listens to the breathy sighs and moans she makes as he tongues over hyper-sensitive, dusky nipples. He runs his hands down the new curve of her hips. He spreads his palms across the new expanse of her belly, appreciating the silvery stripes against her dark skin. They will make her look like a tiger -  goddamned, fearless, fierce tiger.

And she sounds like a wild cat as she rides him; cutting her nails into his chest, dragging those claws over him and making obscene demands that no pregnant woman should. She fucks him like it’s the last night before the apocalypse, like she’s going to die tomorrow. He’ll be wearing her scars all week. Maybe he’ll go into work with his shirt off and show them off a bit. “Oh Fuck-shit Jack. Y-Yes don’t stop,” she pants, catching his wandering hands and clenching so tight he feels his bones protest. “Don’t you fuckin’ dare.”

He wouldn’t. He’s too mesmerised by the bulge of her belly, the sheen of sweat on her skin. He’s fucked Nisha a dozen different ways, but “Pregnant Nisha on top” is his favourite to date. He wants to put another ten kids in her if it means she’ll fuck him like this.

 

* * *

 

Jack’s drawing circles on a sleeping Nisha’s belly one night while pouring over the latest intel received on Pandora. There’s another Vault to be found and it sends an excited little thrill through him. He’ll roast those fucking bastards, starting with the siren skank.

His baby is on the way. Nisha is alive and healthy. There’s a Vault to be found. Angel speaks to him more. Everything is going so well.

There’s a sudden, unexpected thump beneath his palm, and it’s the strongest kick he’s felt to date. Jack’s hand recoils from the shock. “Nish, Nisha wake up,” he says because he needs to tell someone about how his kid nearly kicked his hand off.

His girlfriend stirs, stretching out like a lazy feline. “Jack?...What’s going on? Am I? She pauses to yawn. “Am I havin’ the baby?”

It’s just as well she isn’t having the baby, considering how she doesn’t seem all that bothered by the prospect of labour. “No, the baby’s kicking. She fucking nearly kicked my hand off.”

Nisha grumbles darkly like an unhappy cat. “Ugh, he’s always kicking me Jack,” she complains and rolls onto her side. “Go back to sleep asshole.”

He pulls a rude face at her back. “Well excuse me for breathing.”

“Can’t believe you woke me up for that. Do you know how hard it is to get some shut eye when there’s a tiny person kickin’ your kidneys?”

Jack reaches around and pats her baby bump. “That’s my little hero. Gonna kill all the asshole Vault hunters huh? Well don’t start with mommy, daddy needs her around.”

She glances over her slim shoulder. “You do huh? Funny way of showin’ it.”

“Yeah.” He places his pad on the bed and leans over his girlfriend. She turns slightly to face him. She’s so damn pretty when she’s ruffled and languid from sleep. “Don’t tell anyone but I like like you.”

Nisha lazily reaches up and runs her fingers along the gnarled flesh of his Vault scar and down to his lips, despite how annoyed she is with him. “Hmm, that so?”

He lightly bites the pads of her digits and he loves how her eyes seem to go dark. “It’s a secret.”

“Just as well you do. I don’t have babies for just _anyone y_ a know.”

“Yeah I’d hope not,” he says as he slides his fingers into her hair to stroke her scalp. "I don't like sharing either."

Nisha makes a sound of contentment in her throat and she’s rolling again, this time to face him properly. Her leg hooks around his waist  and she’s pulling herself against him. “Mmm my handsome hero, Hyperion’s boss man. And I got you all to myself,” she purrs.

He knows that look, and that insistent press of her hips against him. “Thought you wanted to go back to sleep?"

“Fuck that.” Her lips are on him, fingers running up to curl around his neck.

Jack forgets about his work again.

_Thank you pregnancy hormones._

* * *

 

A call connects into his ECHO device while he’s in a meeting. The caller is Nisha.

Jack rolls his eyes as he prepares to answer. “Hey shut up a second would ya?” he says to his chief Weapons System analyst with some irritation. How typical of her to call during a mission just because she’s bored on Pandora. She’s the one who wants to run that dusty town, not him.

“Hey Nisha babe, I’m in a meeting right now so make it quick and clean,” he says cheerfully.

 _“Jack. Shit.”_ There’s a hiss of pain in his ear. _“The baby wants out.”_

He goes still for a moment. “Uh? What?” Jack says stupidly.

 _“JACK!”_ His board of senior staff flinch collectively _. “I’m having the baby. Right. Now.”_ Her sentences are punctured with gasps.

He suddenly remembers that he's an expectant father, and that his girlfriend is pregnant.“What!? No! Can’t be. She’s early. She’s not supposed to be early.” He’s pretty sure he’s about to have a heart attack. Or an aneurysm. Probably both.

Nisha groans in his ear and for once, it’s not the least bit sexy. It’s straight up terrifying. _“Tell that to the baby Jack. He wants out. And he wants out now.”_

Now he’s panicking, his hands making anxious, fretful shapes. He suddenly forgets that he has his senior staff in his board room. “Oh no no no no Nisha. You’re not having our kid on Pandora. No freaking way.”

_“Oh yes Jack. I’m havin’ our kid on Pandora. Suck it up honey”_

He’s aware of the excess sweat building beneath his mask.“Can’t you just hold it in a while until I get you up here?”

There’s a scream in his ear, and he’s not sure if it’s in pain or rage. “ _Just shut up and get down here Jack! I wanna break every single one of your bones for puttin’ me through this!”_

Her demand kicks him into touch and he’s suddenly going for his jacket slung over his chair. “Uh, yeah sure I’ll go for a shuttle now.” He stops suddenly, and realises that his senior staff are all looking at him with open mouths and wide eyes – probably wondering how Nisha gets away with speaking to him like that.

“You lot get out. I’m having a fucking baby!”

Jack is out the door before any of them have even shifted their asses from their seat. “Angel!” he barks.

She connects immediately. Was she waiting for the call, or did she know already? _“Yes Jack.”_

“Baby’s making an appearance at last. I need you to get me some eyes on Nisha, keep an eye on her until I get down,” he orders. Knowing Angel, she probably already has but he has to feel like he’s in control of something.

 _“Of course.”_ There’s a pause on the line, a hesitation. _“She’ll be okay Jack.”_

“I know, it’s Nisha we’re talking about,” he says, but he can’t stop the horrible, sinking feeling in his gut that something is going to go pear shaped.

 

* * *

 

He’s never held any stock in god or deity, hilarious really considering he named his daughter Angel. Organised faith is for stupid sheep who either don’t have a clue about how the universe worked, or just didn’t want one. He’s seen too much to believe that there’s some old dude watching over them. That old man didn’t both his ass to help him when his psycho grandmother broke his wrist. That old man didn’t bother him to offer any comfort when he was seven, hiding in the dark and biting his teeth into his knuckles to stop himself from crying. As far as he’s concerned, he’s the closest thing Helios will ever have to a God. What he wants, he gets for himself. He hasn't asked God for anything.,

Until now.

As he sits on the shuttle down to Pandora, his knees knocking together as he trembles, Jack makes his promise to whatever God is wiggling their ears. He makes the promise as he grinds the heels of his palms against his eyes. He’ll do whatever they want, kill whoever they want. He’ll burn the universe to a crisp if he has to so long as they don’t mark his kid with those damn tattoos. He doesn’t want them anymore.

_Please._

_Don’t let it be a siren._

_Please._

_Don’t let Nisha die._

 

* * *

 

Somewhere, someone listens to him.

* * *

 

His son is born at 03:57 in Lynchwood, weighing in a six pounds three ounces. Not bad for a baby born two weeks early.

The town’s doctor – who is really just a glorified medic but what does he care – carefully lifts a little bundle wrapped in a faded blue blanket into Jack’s arms. It’s a familiar warm weight and his limbs and hands seem to just know where to go to support his son safely. He looks like little more than a very large, wrinkled baked sweet potato with a thick dusting of black hair.

He stares for a moment, breath held as the baby adjusts in his arms. He’s accidentally got a potato for a son.

But Jack finds he doesn’t care. “Guess you were right,” he says. His voice is not breaking at all. Nope, not at all.

“Heh aren’t I always?” croaks Nisha. She’s pal,  damp with sweat and looks completely shattered. He’s used to seeing her as strong and sturdy as the titanium Helios manufactures.

But still she finds it in her to poke fun at him. “Shit, you look worse than I do Jack,” she jokes but she’s probably right. He’s been hauling his hands through his hair for hours now.

“What do you wanna name him?” he asks, still in a strange, out of body daze. He doesn't seem to remember the last eleven hours.

Nisha smiles although she’s exhausted. “I wanna call him Jake,” she replies, her voice rough.

Jack nods. She’s given him a son. At this point, he’ll eat his own mask if she asked him to. “Jake,” he says, trying it out as he rocks the little warm bundle in his arms. His son wriggles against him, fighting with the blankets. “Jack and Jake. Yeah, that could work.” He likes the sound of that. It has a good ring to it and marketing will have a field day printing clever slogans and alliterations with their names. “Hey kiddo,” he says, then clears his voice because he still sounds choked up. “It’s me, your daddy.”

Jake squirms in his arms, making a tiny fist in the air as if trying to reach him. “Yeah, that’s right, take a good look at this handsome mug. You’ll have to overthrow it one day,” Jack says and it’s a struggle not to melt as his son reaches to paw at his mask.

He sits at the edge of the cot next to his girlfriend. “Jesus Nish, I’ve got a son.” He can’t quite believe that this squirming little potato in his arms is his son. But he’ll be the cutest little potato on Helios. “Thanks babe.”

She blinks at him, not looking all together there. “For what?”

“Doing all this,” Jack says as he rubs his son’s back.

Nisha manages a dry laugh. “You won’t be thanking me when he’s screamin’ and shittin’ at 3am. You’ve got the nightshifts remember.”

“Pffft, that’s what the hired help is for.”

“Cheatin’ bastard,” she says with a yawn. He’s surprised she’s even still conscious – eleven hours of screaming and cursing should have tired her out.

“Go to sleep babe, I’ll hold down the fort,” he says, forgetting momentarily that he has a company to run.

Nisha leans against his shoulder. “Wake me in fifty years,” she replies sleepily.

Jack rests his chin on her head, just observing his tiny son wriggling in his blankets. Already his skin is lightening from a newborn red to a dusty brown. His eyes are still little scrunches but Jack’s willing to bet that his eyes will be gold, just like his mother. Strange that his kids never seem to take after him at all.

Suddenly, he’s aware of a Hyperion camera on the ceiling, glinting gold and silver. Angel is watching. Jack tilts his arms slightly and he hears the camera’s lenses adjust. “Say hello to your big sis Jake," he says as he presses his nose against his son's hair. "She’s an Angel you know. She’s gonna look out for you when we can't.”

The camera nods.


End file.
